The Desolate Era

Book 3, Chapter 6 - The Return

“Windwing Evasion is the root and foundation for our Yuchi clan. It is not to be transmitted to outsiders!”

Upon opening the gold-leaf pages, this was the very first line of characters, which caused Ji Ning to be stunned. The Yuchi clan? His mother was Yuchi Snow. Could this mean that his mother belonged to the Yuchi clan? In this wide land, those who were born into poor circumstances and didn’t have a good clan name would just randomly pick names for themselves, such as ‘Blacktooth’, ‘Blackstone’, ‘Ironhead’, etc. Generally speaking, only large-scale clans had proper surnames!

“Mother has never mentioned the Yuchi clan to me.” Ning said to himself. “I am Mother’s child, and I can thus be considered to have the blood of the Yuchi clan in my veins. But strictly speaking, I am only half a Yuchi clan member. And yet, Mother still taught this to me. However, from my birth until today, I have never heard of a Yuchi clan.”

The number of books Ning had read could only be described as ‘many’! But the books had no records of a Yuchi clan, which meant that the Yuchi clan was not a clan from the surrounding area.

That made sense...

Mother and Father had met in the distant Dark North Seas, and then they had gone adventuring together.

“I’ve never heard Mother discuss the Yuchi clan. Perhaps Mother left the clan, or perhaps the Yuchi clan collapsed? Forget it, it doesn’t matter right now.” Ning lowered his head, continuing to read. This book explained in detail the history of the [Windwing Evasion] technique.

The ancestor of the Yuchi clan, Yuchi Anton, was born a slave.

Once, when hunting on a mountain, he had rescued a heavily injured child. He had worked hard to take care of this child, and the child slowly recovered. Only after half a year did the child reveal his true identity...as it turned out, this person who had appeared to be a child was, in reality, a Celestial Immortal who had trained for countless years and had long since escaped the Three Realms. This time, he had encountered a great disaster, and thus he had used all his abilities in order to flee to this mountain, but by then, he had become powerless. If he had ran into an ordinary little monstrous beast, he probably would have been eaten.

This child had named himself Suhuan, and claimed that he had already become an Immortal in the Fiendgod Era.

And then, this Immortal named Suhuan had taught Anton training methods. Who would have thought that Anton was actually more talented in Fiendgod Body Refining methods...Suhuan had stayed by Anton’s side for fully a hundred years, carefully teaching him, while at the same time transmitting to him a divine ability, the [Windwing Evasion]. And then, Suhuan had said, “Our karmic destiny has come to its end. I hope you will shape up!”

And then, he had flown away.

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“Celestial Immortal?” Ning was shocked. “Divine ability?”

This...this....

Even in the Netherworld Kingdom, according to what the Lord of Cui Manor had said the celestial soldiers and generals of the Heaven Realm, after acquiring the likes of the [Nuwa Painting] visualization technique, would have to experience countless tribulations before becoming a Celestial Immortal! In the Grand Xia Dynasty, perhaps a million years would pass without a single Celestial Immortal being born. They truly were creatures who had transcended the Three Realms, who were no longer bound by the restrictions of the Netherworld Kingdom or of the Heavenly Court. They were Immortals who did as they pleased.

“Who would have thought that the ancestor of Mother’s Yuchi clan would have had a history like this.” Ning felt shaken. “This history is far more incredible than our Ji clan’s.”

“In addition, the [Windwing Evasion] is a divine ability!”

Ning couldn’t breathe.

What was a ‘divine ability’?

Some of the more famous divine abilities, included the ‘Kuafu Sunchaser’, ’72 Transformations’, ‘Three Heads, Six Arms’, ‘Houyi Shooting the Sun’. These were the natural abilities which the ancient, mighty Fiendgods had developed. Only these abilities could be described as ‘divine abilities’! Only Fiendgod Body Refiners could train in them, and only upon reaching the Zifu level could they begin their training!

Every single ‘divine ability’ was incomparably precious. Many Fiendgod Body Refiners, upon reaching the Zifu Disciple level, were clearly capable of learning divine abilities, but they didn’t have any chance to do so.

“Divine abilities should only be usable at the Zifu stage. But Mother instructed me to begin learning at the Xiantian stage. Why is that?” Ning continued to read the detailed information regarding the training methods for the [Windwing Evasion].

Hua!

Flipping through the golden pages, another golden page appeared before him, but clearly, this golden page was somewhat different from the previous pages. This golden page still had a hint of stellar light glowing from it, and there was a diagram engraved at the top of it. It was that of a giant Roc in flight.

At times, it stretched its wings. At times, it sank down. At times, it flew throughout the Nine Heavens. At times, it sank into the seas. At times, it landed on the ground. At times, it burrowed deep into the earth...

Ning couldn’t help but feel affected by this diagram. It was as though he had seen an enormous Roc in flight. In addition, the great Roc in this diagram was covered by countless specks of stellar light, and these specks of stellar light...seemed like the divine power flowing through the critical parts of the great Roc’s body.

The spots of light seemed to be focused on a pair of wings.

“The great Roc spreads his wings, and travels a hundred thousand kilometers as it flies!”

“This is what Master Suhuan told to me. Unfortunately, I am far too distant from that level. The descendants of my Yuchi clan must focus on training in this [Windwing Evasion] technique. I hope that one day, one of them will be able to reach the highest ‘divine ability’ level. The eighty one Roc diagrams of the [Windwing Evasion] has profound secrets hidden within it. It must be meditated upon! The benefits to it are boundless!”

“The [Windwing Evasion] is divided into multiple layers and levels. Once the divine power in one’s body reaches the level of being able to condense into a pair of wings, only then can one be considered to have developed a ‘divine ability’. However, the [Windwing Evasion] remains a divine technique, and it would be jealously desired by some extremely powerful tribes of the Grand Xia Dynasty. The descendants of my clan absolutely must use wing-type magic treasures alongside this divine ability. Thus, not only can they rely on the power of the magic treasures to fly even faster, they can also prevent others from knowing of the existence of this divine ability...”

Ning closed the book.

Only after a long time was he able to calm down.

“My mother truly does have an extraordinary background.” Ning frowned. “But clearly, although each page of this book is golden, the paper of those eighty one Roc diagrams are different from that of the other pages. In addition, such miraculous diagrams were most likely left behind by that Immortal, Suhuan, himself.”

“Immortal Suhuan, despite teaching the [Windwing Evasion], most likely only left a single copy. In other words, the Yuchi clan should only have a single secret manual!” Ning hypothesized.

Although this was his first time viewing the eighty one Roc diagrams, Ning felt extremely certain that these eighty one Roc diagrams did indeed contain boundless secrets. It was the same feeling he had when he was gaining insights into the Dao...the feeling of immeasurably deep secrets. Most likely, only a person who had reached the highest levels of training in this divine ability was able to carve and draw them down.

“Ancestor Yuchi only had a single copy of this secret manual, but my mother is in possession of it.” Ning pondered. “Can it be that the Yuchi clan was destroyed? Or was there another reason?”

Although he felt somewhat worried for his mother’s relatives, he had never had any attachments to the Yuchi clan, and so Ning quickly stopped thinking about it.

“I need to carefully meditate on this.”

The moon hanging high above him, Ning quietly sat down by the side of the pond, flipping through and looking at the Roc diagrams.

The [Windwing Evasion] was divided into many different levels.

Only after one’s divine power was able to form wings could one be considered to have developed a divine ability. However, the requirements for divine power were very high; only a Zifu Disciple was capable of it.

“My mother had me begin to read it at the Xiantian level.” Ning laughed. “Although I’m not able to use divine power to form wings, the eighty one Roc diagrams contain boundless, endless secrets and mysteries. After I gain insight into them, it will still be very beneficial to my body.”

Ning had already gained a hint of the true meaning of the Dao.

The higher one’s level of enlightenment was, the more easily one would be able to tell that the eighty one Roc diagrams contained boundless truths, and even more infinite mysteries. Naturally, he would meditate on them intensively.

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Time passed.

The Golden Crow fell. The Moon Rabbit rose.

One day passed after another. Ning remained within that mountain forest, completely focused on the [Windwing Evasion]. His body flashed through the mountain forests time and time again, and his movements took him farther and farther each time, at faster and faster speeds, with greater ease each time.

“I’ve already trained here for over a month.” Ning suddenly came to his senses as he stared at the sun in the sky. “If I don’t go back, most likely Autumn Leaf and the others will frantically report back to West Prefecture City.”

“Time to go back.”

Ning revealed a smile on his face. Turning to glance at the surrounding area, he saw that the pool was as calm as ever, and the aquatic grass in the pool still continued to slowly drift about.

“In the past month or so, I’ve improved dramatically.” Ning felt incomparably delighted. Whether in Ki, as a Fiendgod, his soul, or even his newly learned divine ability, the [Windwing Evasion], he had improved greatly.

“Time to go.”

Ning instantly leapt up.

Swoosh!

Like a blurry image, or like a bird in flight, he instantly flew over a kilometer away. His speed was now faster than when Ironwood Zhan had simultaneously used the ‘Light Body Seal’ and the ‘Divine Movement Seal’.

...............

In a desolate tribe within the wilderness, there were many overturned stone rooms. The tribe was in a state of desolation. Clearly, the tribesmen had all departed long ago. This was an abandoned place.

But at the edges of the tribe, there were a few dozen stone houses that were absolutely spotless, where a group of black armored guards were gathered together.

Autumn Leaf was seated on a stone bench, quietly staring into the distance while waiting.

Previously, due to the appearance of the Diremonster, Serpentwing, at Serpentwing Lake, Ji Ning had immediately led Autumn Leaf and Mowu out of the Metalstone Tribue...but after the Serpentwing event had died down, Ning had permitted Autumn Leaf and Mowu to temporarily stay here with these black armored guards.

The territory which the Ji clan ruled over was simply too vast.

Thus, they had squads of black armored guards scattered throughout their domain. Whenever they were needed, they could immediately congregate while shocking and overawing countless tribes.

“Young master.” Autumn Leaf stood up in surprised delight.

Those black armored guards and Mowu also turned to look. They saw from the distance a blurry figure appeared in a flash within those ruined tribal houses, then smile and walk towards them.

“Huh?” Autumn Leaf was slightly startled. She could tell that her young master, who was walking towards her from afar, was somewhat different. His entire body seemed to radiate a familiar aura, as though the essence of the heavens and the earth were within him! But of course, only she, who had been by Ning’s side since he was young, was able to notice many of these little qualitative changes in Ning.

“Young master.” Mowu stepped forward to pay his respects.

“Young master.” The nearby group of black armored guards all fell to one knee.

“Make your preparations. It is time for me to head back.” Ji Ning laughed as he spoke.

Autumn Leaf was startled. “Go? Go back?”

“First to Serpentwing Lake.” Ning’s eyes had a hint of anticipation flash through them. On this adventuring trip, he had decided long ago that upon breaking through and becoming a Xiantian lifeform, he would go deal with Serpentwing. Although Serpentwing had currently broken through to the peak Xiantian level, Ning was still completely confident.

“Young master, you...” Autumn Leaf revealed a look of surprise and delight. Naturally, she knew that Ning planned to go deal with Serpentwing as soon as he broke through to the Xiantian lifeform level.

“Right.” Ning nodded.

Autumn Leaf was extremely cautious. She didn’t say anything, only nodded repeatedly. “Mowu, hurry, gather our things. We’re heading out.”

Moments later.

Ning, Autumn Leaf, and Mowu, riding three black beasts, departed this ruined tribe.